Live Antarctica Trip Report

[Traveler718]

The thread that SF linked has links to the following articles on pg. 1:
https://www.jta.org/1997/12/04/archive/u-s-rabbi-leading-kosher-tour-of-the-pristine-land-of-antarctica-2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/travel/1997/01/26/full-steam-ahead/2a6254ad-82fd-4337-b7d7-8ef05dcd3a53/

[Dan]

The thread that SF linked has links to the following articles on pg. 1:
https://www.jta.org/1997/12/04/archive/u-s-rabbi-leading-kosher-tour-of-the-pristine-land-of-antarctica-2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/travel/1997/01/26/full-steam-ahead/2a6254ad-82fd-4337-b7d7-8ef05dcd3a53/

Looks like ads to me.

[jose34]

Tuesday, December 18

It was Monday evening, and we were entering the Drake.

We were 800 miles away from Argentina, and ahead of us laid the stormies waters on Earth. On the way down we lucked out ......
In the end, 15 out of 51 people in our group successfully completed the fast.

By the time the fast ended, the weather had calmed down dramatically and more closely resembled the Drake on the way down. I found it interesting that as soon as the seas calmed the vast majority of passengers immediately felt better. By the next day many people actually felt it had been an excellent adventure, and yet another exciting part of the Antarctic experience.

We were still due south of Cape Horn, but also too far north at this point to daven Shachris before bed - our wacky zmanim were quickly returning to normal. Clearly we were getting closer to civilization.

Is this finished, are there more segments?

[Something Fishy]

Is this finished, are there more segments?

Couple more small segments coming.

[CRACKERJACK]

ETA?

[miles lover]

Couple more small segments coming.

Very nice report ! Keep it up !

[Something Fishy]

Wednesday, December 19

After a grueling day crossing the Drake Passage, we woke up today to something strange: the ship was not bucking up and down like a drunken sailor. Sometime during the night we had passed the Antarctic Convergence and the weather had changed dramatically. While it was still cloudy, the waves were more gentle and the wind was no longer howling. We davened shachris late, had a long breakfast, and just spent a relaxing morning recuperating from yesterday's - ahem - adventure.

We had been on board the ship for nine days now, and I still hadn't learned to DUCK when I went in and out of our shul. I could never come late to minyan, as my arrival would invariably be announced by the crack of my face hitting the top of the door.

Watch you Head:


(Photo credit @CheskyGold)

Just around noon, something appeared on the horizon:

(Video and audio credit @chff)

As we made our way back to South America - and civilization - the weather became steadily nicer. By the time we rounded the cape and entered the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina, it was a warm summer's day. We all packed out onto the decks and sat for hours basking in the warm sun and cementing newfound friendships:



Later on everyone gathered in the lounge where a presentation was shown going over the exciting parts of our journey, thanking the staff, and so on. Dinner was a lovely affair, with our chef @Jolu going all out and me finally making a l'chaim on something other than pickles:





After dinner there was one more job to take care of: a giant pile of half-full wines had to be finished. We set it out in the Bistro Lounge and the group went to town:



Once again most people filtered out to the decks, with our wine keeping spirits up. There was singing and dancing, and we were soon joined by the rest of the ship. Jews and non-Jews, waiters and Prime Ministers stood together schmoozing and reliving an amazing trip, long into the night:


(Photo credit @chff)


(Photo credit @chff)

Hugging it out with Expedition Leader Boris:

(Video credit @LFR, who sent it to me with that title )

And then it was back to our cabins, for one last night...

[Yehoshua]

Nice to see this one wasn't forgotten about. Thanks for sharing.

[Something Fishy]

Friday, December 14

BING BONG!

Our morning wake up chime today was accompanied by the announcement of a giant tabular iceberg, our first in Antarctica. These behemoths break off from the ice shelves on the edge of the continent and then float for years, before being broken off into smaller chunks, drifting northward, and ultimately melting away.

At over 5 miles wide, you can say this big guy was an epic welcome to Antarctica:

So with giant icebergs in the news, I've been researching "our" iceberg. Turns out that this is iceberg A57a. It broke off in 2008 as A57, and this is was a "smaller" bit that broke away, hence A57a. When we saw it, it was approximately 5 by 11 miles in size - an insane 55 square miles. That's over 2.5x the size of manhattan.

[AsherO]

So with giant icebergs in the news, I've been researching "our" iceberg. Turns out that this is iceberg A57a. It broke off in 2008 as A57, and this is was a "smaller" bit that broke away, hence A57a. When we saw it, it was approximately 5 by 11 miles in size - an insane 55 square miles. That's over 2.5x the size of manhattan.

Is that the entire size? How much of that is visible? (“Tip of the iceberg”?)

[Something Fishy]

Is that the entire size? How much of that is visible? (“Tip of the iceberg”?)

5 by 12 miles is the surface area. I can't find its height listed anywhere, but it was certainly a coupe hundred feet out of the water. Only an eighth of an iceberg is typically visible, so this is at least 1500-2000 feet thick - and maybe a whole lot more.

[yesitsme]

5 by 12 miles is the surface area. I can't find its height listed anywhere, but it was certainly a coupe hundred feet out of the water. Only an eighth of an iceberg is typically visible, so this is at least 1500-2000 feet thick - and maybe a whole lot more.

How do close can cruise ships get? And what safety system do they have in place not to crash?

[Something Fishy]

How do close can cruise ships get? And what safety system do they have in place not to crash?

There isn't much danger to ships from these giant tabular icebergs. They move slowly, don't tip over, and are quite predictable. That being said, a ship will keep a healthy distance as these things create their own weather and wind patterns so you never quite know what to expect.

Ironically it's the smaller icebergs that pose the real danger, so the ship has a 24/7 ice patrol in the bridge in order not to end up as Titanic 2.0.

While out on the zodiacs, we maintain a distance of at least one and a half times the height of the iceberg in case it begins to roll over.

[Something Fishy]

Ice patrol:

[Something Fishy]

Thursday, December 20

Good morning Ushuaia! Woke up to find our ship safely docked and back in civilization:





Timelapse of the sunrise docking, while we were all still asleep:

(Video credit Bruce Paterson)

After davening and breakfast, we had prepared to-go lunches and dinners for everyone - it would be a good 24 hours before most people got home, and we wanted people to have something other than airline food to eat.

This is really over...:



On dry land for the first time in 10 days, sefer torah on my back:


(Photo credit @chff)



All our bags lined up, to be loaded onto a truck and taken to the airport:


(Photo credit @chff)

Goodbye, RCGS Resolute:



There was a bus to take people to the airport, but as it was still a couple of hours before the flight, a couple of us decided to walk into town instead:



Signs proclaiming, to anyone who'd listen, Argentina's sovereignty over the Argentine Antarctica Territory and the Falklands (which they call Malvinas, and has been "since 1883, under the illegal occupation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"):





Kosher Freddo's in Ushuaia? Sign me up!



Stopped for some souvenir PARCHES:



And one last penguin sighting:



Back in the airport:



Off to Buenos Aires:



Our entire group was on this flight, and it was quite the sight to see every single first class seat filled with heimish Yidden. In fact the flight looked more like one to TLV than in the middle of Argentina.

Off we go:



Spectacular views as we climbed out over the Beagle Channel and the mountains of Patagonia:













Aerolineas Argentinas has a well-earned reputation for horribleness, and this flight did not disappoint. For the first time in my life, I did not see a single flight attendant throughout an entire flight. From take off to landing, there were none to be seen. I'm assuming (hoping?) that some were aboard, but I saw zero evidence to support that. No safety announcement, no cabin checks, and who is even thinking about any sort of in-flight service - even in F. The seat however, to be fair, was quite comfortable and perfectly fine for this short flight.

Wait, did I say short? Ha! As we are nearing Buenos Aires, the plane starts going in circles. Once, twice, three times.... over and over and over. No explanation, no word from the crew.

It didn't take long for people to start getting nervous. With this being the only flight out of Ushuaia that would get us home for Shabbos, we pretty much all had somewhat tight connections in BA. We were landing in AEP - the domestic airport - and needed to get to EZE for our international flights home. At the best of times, you need at least 4 hours for the entire shpeil - and here we needed to cross through the city during the evening rush. I personally had a 5.5 hour layover, and even I was getting antsy here.

After an interminable time of going literally in circles, we eventually continued north - until it was deja vu all over again. Not a word from the cockpit, no ETA, nothing:



Finally coming in to land - nearly an hour late:



Once safely on the ground with our baggage in hand, we were able to relax a bit - it looked like we'll all make our fights in the end. Not just that, but we even had time to stop for dinner along the way. We had our taxi drop us off at Glitter and wait for us. Dinner wasn't bad, but the food was nothing amazing IIRC.

Made it to the airport on time, had a surprisingly decent night's sleep in J on AA's 77W, and woke up to a humid Miami. A short uneventful final flight later, and I was back home, in plenty of time for Shabbos.


The End!





...Or not. I'll still add a trip summary post, plus a segment covering the beginning of the trip and our two days in Buenos Aires.

[moisheyb]

Wow very nice tr!!
Just in time to remember asarah bteves!

[Yehoshua]

Very nice ending to a wonderful TR. Thank you for sharing!!

[Moshe123]

Amazing!!

[Deal Guy]

Very nice read!

[ushdadude]

did you hit the call button?